Bow To No One

Prologue :: WITHOUT HER
-"Oh for fox's sake, we'll never make it time!!"

Mara Volkov was growing impatient. Her twin sister Sora and her were in a gridlock on their way to the Russian Cosmodrome. Rockets were launching by the dozens everyday to allow humanity to survive the Darkness, but it was spreading faster and faster. There wasn't much time left and the people of Earth knew it ; they all rushed to the Cosmodrome and created the biggest gridlock in existence.

-"Maybe we should leave the car here and go by foot, we'd get there sooner." Sora said.
-"Or we could explode their head off."
-"Sure, let's kill even more people trying to save ourselves."
-"I was kidding..." Mara peeked her head out the window. "Come on!! Hurry!!!"
She honked.
-"It's no use." Sora said. "Don't you see? It's totally jammed! Let's get our things and go by foot, before others have the same idea."

BANG!!!! BANG!!!! BANG!!!!

-"What the hell? Were those gunshots?!" Mara said as she looked out to see where the noise was coming from.
-"Maybe someone heard your brilliant idea and decided to act on it."

Mara looked at her sister, unamused and a bit worried. She stepped out of the car to have a better look. The Darkness was spreading, faster and darker.

-"Wait here!"

Mara took her hand cannon, gun passed to her from her father on the day he died to an unknown disease, prior to the arrival of the Darkness. It was a beautiful little 8 bullets gun, called Cordova-HC3. She ran towards the noise that was coming from further behind the line. Screams of terror were starting be heard. What she saw was apocalyptic. What looked like a shadow was coming forward and spreading in width, probably slowly killing people stuck in it of a painful death, according to the screams, the cries and the horrified expressions on the face of those running away from it. Some people that touched the Darkness could come out of it, helped by other people, and Mara could see spots on their skin starting to turn to dust. A gun was not going to do anything against such threat, she ran back to her car.

-"Sora!" She yelled. "You were right, that's our only option to make it alive, come on, get out!"

Mara arrived to her car... it was empty.
-"Sora..? SORA??" She called.
No answer. "Where is she..." Mara asked herself. "She must have left to get on a rocket like she suggested, but it's not her to not wait for me... why would she not wait for me.... She probably did it in fear I would argue with her, that it would not be a good idea to leave the car. Well now, I don't have a choice but to follow her. This Darkness drives everybody crazy."
She looked towards the space station to see if Sora was in sight. She wasn't, but other people were starting to get off their car and run to the station.
"They must have seen her." She thought.
Mara reached to her travel bag that was on the back seat and saw that Sora didn't take hers.
"She forgot her bag..?"
Even in an life or death situation, Sora would have thought of her personal belongings. That wasn't like her. What is happening to everybody...
Mara took her bag and her sister's. There was everything dear to their hearts in those two bags. Souvenirs, favorite items, and some creative activities in case they got bored in space.
She left her car but she felt that she had to take the keys with her. Which she did. She was very intuitive and her feelings were usually right. She came back, took her keys, locked the doors, and ran towards the station, among the others who fled, still hearing screams of terror coming from not so far behind her.
Arrived at the station, it was panic everywhere. Soldiers were trying to keep everyone calm or at least, less panicking, to make things go as smoothly as possible in the situation.
-"We do have enough space shuttles for everybody sir." Mara heard a soldier at the door say to a terrified citizen. The crowd sighed in relief. "We just don't know how much time we have left. We might have to close the doors before scheduled time to save everybody already in there."
The panic took over again and even worse than before. People were bumping in each other, some were even violent, to be first in line.

Despite her two backpacks, Mara took advantage of everybody fighting with each other to move forward without being noticed. Since she was walking in zigzags looking for Sora, nobody paid attention to her as she advanced further and further in the crowd. She couldn't locate her sister, but the crowd was so dense, and since Sora was probably among the first ones to reach the station by foot, she was probably already inside.
At the moment Mara passed the door of the station, she could hear the soldier being told off by his superior about the chaos he just caused by saying that not everyone would be able to have a place.
Inside, Mara felt like 100 pounds went off her shoulders. She was safe, they both were. She knew she would have a place on one of those rockets for sure.
In the station, people were divided in many lines, each one going to a space shuttle. Mara had to find her sister, but it was very difficult to roam freely, everybody was taken care of by soldiers, pressing them to register and enter the shuttles as quick as possible.
-"Miss, please stay in line." A soldier told her.
-"I have to find my sister!! I cannot leave without her!"
-"Was your sister with you?"
-"No, she went ahead, and now I cannot find her!"
-"Miss, odds are she's already in a shuttle, if you made it here, she surely did too. Now take a breath. I know it's scary but no one will be left behind. Everybody has to register. Once these last shuttles' doors will be closed, go to the information desk of your shuttle and ask to know where your sister is. They'll have all the information in the system."
Mara didn't like this at all, she didn't quite feel at peace, but time was running out. She stood in line for shuttle #3, looking everywhere around her, like a overly anxious meerkat.
-"Name and identification number please." Asked the lady at the desk.
-"Mara Volkov. D8388420F."
The lady quickly filled the paperwork, gave Mara her proof of registration and installed a little chip on her hand.
-"What is that for?" Asked Mara.
-"If anything was to happen to any one of the passengers, we need to be able to locate them right away."

Mara nodded.

There were about 10 workers filling forms for each shuttles. Everything was made so no time will be wasted and they could save as much people as possible.

She felt a bit sick to her stomach when she passed through the shuttle door. She felt like she was stuck in a cyclone, twirling uncontrollably in a crowd of hundreds of people. She tried to tell herself that soon everything will be fine, on whatever planet they'll all land to build a new world far from the Darkness and the monsters that came with it.

People were sent on the shuttle's 10 habitable floors, everyone had their little private room, barely big enough for a single bed, a drawer, a shower and a toilet. There was space for about 200 people on each floor, with a social center place, furnished and decorated like an old European cafe. There were huge windows making half of the floors' walls, all around.

Mara put her bag in her little room, and went downstairs, waiting for the right time to ask for Sora.
She just stood there, looking at tens of people entering and getting redirected to their floor. It was like it would never end, it felt like forever until they finally stopped arriving. The lady at the registration came in and Mara could hear fainted scream of terror coming from outside. It was about time the doors closed.
As soon as they did close, Mara rushed to the information desk. She didn't expect to see the lady working there, soldiers and passengers freaking out, running everywhere.

-"What happened??" She asked the lady at the front desk.
-"I don't know, the doors closed on their own!! There are still people out there!"
-"Open them again then?"
-"I can't, they are locked!"

The poor lady was sweating out of stress, some people were crying, calling for their loved ones, on the other side, with the Darkness. We could hear soldiers on the other side cursing at whomever could hear them "Let us in!! What are you doing damn it?!!"

Mara stood there, looking at this chaos. She was touched by what those people were going through, but all she really cared about was to be sure her sister was safe. She thought it was probably not the time, but she decided to ask the desk lady to check for Sora anyway. As she walked towards the front desk, making her way in the crowd, a deep and radiophonic male voice with a background of the 6th symphony Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky took over the intercom.

-"This is for you own good, humans. Now, you leave."

Almost everybody just stopped, wondering what it meant, who it was, starting to be scared. It didn't take long for the chaos to build again.
Mara arrived the desk, the lady working there had her head in her hands, in despair and total confusion. She used her softer voice and asked :

-"Hi miss..." Mara read the lady's name tag. "Miss Venj, they told me you could help me, I lost my sister in the crowd, can you tell me where she is?"
The front desk lady turned her head a bit too look at Mara. She looked like she was just about to give up on everything.
-"Yeah, sure, whatever. What's her name and identification number?"
-"Sora Volkov. D8388421F."

Miss Venj typed on her keyboard. Seconds felt like minutes.

-"I'm sorry, I cannot find her in our system."
-"Well that's impossible! She's here! Is there anyone you can call? Look, I have her bag!"

The panic was starting to build in her too now. The lady looked at Mara, unimpressed.

-"She was in front of me" Mara continued. "She must be here!"
-"Maybe she waited for you outside... and now she's stuck there... Your sister is definitely somewhere, but it's not here. I'm sorry..."

The floor shook for a few seconds. The shuttle was taking off. No... NO!!
-"I GOTTA GO BACK!! I NEED TO LEAVE!"
-"I wish we all could.."
-"I CANNOT LEAVE WITHOUT HER!!"
-"I'm sorry, I really am."

They stood silently for a few seconds, looking at each other. The receptionist really looked saddened by the whole situation. Mara's eyes were wide open, in terror, in panic, her breathing was going faster and faster.
She ran to the huge window wall.

-"NOOOOO!! SORA!!!"
She banged on the thick glass with both her fists.
-"No....."

Tears were running down Mara's cheek looking at the Earth getting smaller and smaller as the shuttle was getting away.

== GRIMOIRE ==
Space is vast. Storm and dangers.

Loss of contact, loss of lives.

We had to change course. To live.

Edge of space, black and purple. Bright.

Where's the shuttle? How am I alive?

Songs. Lights. Born again, or was I ever alive before?

The secret of creation, she said. Great and magnificent.

Void running through my veins.

Awake to me. Awake to my true self.

Awoken.


== CHAPTER ONE : BACK FOR HER ==

Mara was putting the last touches to her little ship, made from spare parts of the Awoken royal fleet. She had been working on it in secret for decades, having never forgotten her past and what was still waiting for her on Earth, she hoped.
Her home, the Reef, was located in the asteroid belt of the solar system, built in countless derelicts.
Life had been good for Mara for centuries, but it was time now to go back for Sora.

-“Are you sure?” Said a soothing male voice behind her.
The man was tall with a light shade of blue skin, but still darker than Mara’s. His hair was down to his chin and dark blue. His eyes, a piercing glowing green.
-“Yes, Adex. I’ve been sure since the day I left, you know that.”
-“I know. I also know that it’s one thing to talk about it, but actually acting on it.. I’m scared for you.”
-“It’ll be fine, I’ll come back you know, you’ll see me again!”
-“The Queen will see you as an intruder if you come back.”
-“Don’t worry about me, I’ll deal with the Queen.”

Adex looked at her with concern. “Here then.” he said. “Take this.”

He handed Mara a little stone ring.

“It’s for good luck.” He added with a smirk.

Mara smiled back and kept on working on her ship until late during the night.

She woke up early the next morning. She got everything ready in her ship and she went to give her respect to the Queen.
The Queen was sitting very comfortably on her throne, serious as always. Her hair was light beige and down to her shoulders. She had very light purple skin and light blue eyes. She oddly looked like Mara, beside the skin tone and the more mature face and body language. She always had these two Fallen Vandals by her side.

The Fallen are a nomadic race of four armed humanoids. They are space pirate, scavengers and killers. The Earth, the Moon, Venus and the Reef have their own House, or clan. They are usually the enemy, but the Queen could ally with two Vandals of House of Wolves, to make them hers.

-“Who bows before me?” Asked the Queen.
-“Mara Volkov, your Highness.”
-“And what can we do for Mara Volkov?”
-“I just came to pay my respect, my Queen, and reinforce my allegiance to you.”
-“That is quite appreciated, young one.”

Mara stayed at the Queen’s feet for a little while without a word. She knew that what she was about to do, leave the Reef, would mean relinquish to her home, her family, and her Queen. No. Not the Queen, not ever. Even if she would become an outsider and be treated as such. Not welcomed to the Reef anymore. She spent a long time getting ready to leave, but she knew she had to.

-“My Queen.” She’s said as she stood up.
The Queen nodded and smirked. That was unusual of her. She was powerful and great, she’d do anything for her people but she was kind of cold. Mara left the throne room with a heavy heart, without turning her back on the Queen, ever.

Back to her little ship, she threw her backpack behind the pilot’s seat, double checked the warp drive and wore the Queen’s allegiance bond on her upper arm. Gone or not, she’ll always be the only ruler in Mara’s heart.
She took place in her seat and turned on the engine. The lights on the dashboard lit up, the ship started to float a bit above ground, then flew up in the air and off she went.

The warp drive worked like a charm and Mara could reach the Russian Cosmodrome in a few minutes. She wasn’t really sure what she would find on Earth, but she needed answers. What happened that day? Where was Sora? And how did Earth look now that the Darkness took over, centuries ago?

She landed near the walls outside of the Cosmodrome, the last place she saw her sister, and got off her ship. There was a cold wind blowing and she could see the dark orange grass under the snow. The cars responsible for the massive gridlock were still there, all rusted. Looked like a macabre cemetery.

Silence.

Mara thought she should first look for her old car, maybe she missed something, all those years ago.

All the cars looked the same. How was she supposed to find hers? She was walking randomly, looking for anything that she could remember. She saw that some cars still had the skeleton of their driver still in the front seat. She shuddered. She looked at the horizon and something caught eyes. A little object was flying from one car to another. Like a small flying camera. The sight on that direction rang a bell though. She waited for the camera to leave before walking towards that direction.

The rust and weather conditions during centuries had made every bit of paint disappear of the cars and even seemed to have alter some of their shapes. How to be sure which one was hers… her keys. She had kept her car keys. She was keeping them as good luck charm, maybe they will still work.. despite the rust… She tried to open one of the cars’ door, and it did open. Her car’s doors were locked, she remembered it, but maybe the mechanism failed at some point. Wouldn’t be surprising seeing the state the cars were in. She put the key in the lock and nope, didn’t work. There was also the risk that the lock would be useless too, because of the rust, but she felt it was her best bet. She tried a few cars she thought was hers, but no luck. Until she saw it. This one had a crack on the right front light, just like hers, she remembered it now. Sora hit a small pole that was on the side of the street while learning how to drive. She didn’t even try to open the door, she put the key in the lock right away. It didn’t work. She just knew it was her vehicle, so she tried again, turned the key with more strength this time and it moved a bit, and more, until it unlocked the door, which creaked loudly when she opened it. She sat on the driver’s seat. She could see herself back then, Sora next to her, saying they should run. It was the last time she saw her sister. She could live this moment again like it was yesterday. Mara would have been crying at this moment if it weren’t that she wasn’t the kind of person to get overwhelmed by sadness. On the contrary, she was the kind to use that sadness to become stronger and fight back. She would find what happened to Sora, whatever it took. She inspected the car itself for clues, or anything that could help her discover what happened. She looked in the inside first and then on the outside. Nothing. She looked at the horizon, everything was still very silent. Mara took a deep breath. She put her backpack on the hood of her car, to be able to find it again easily and decided to walk towards the station. She could only hear the wind blowing, her feet in the thin snow and her many thoughts bumping into one another.
“Oh by the Gods, Sora, where are you?”
“She left the car, she must have left the car.”
“What if I came back for nothing?”
“Guardian?”
“Where does this voice come from?… nevermind.”
“I only left the car for like 30 seconds, what could have happened in 30 seconds..”
“I can’t believe I left without her.”
“Guardian?”

She stopped.
“Hello?” Said a male voice behind her.
She put her hand on her gun at her belt and turned around, pointing her gun at who was behind her.
-“Don’t shoot!!” He said.
In front of her was what she thought was a camera earlier, a little floating star drone with a bright blue light in its core.
-“I can’t hurt you.” He continued.
-“Who or what are you?”
-“I’m a ghost. Actually I believe, I’m YOUR ghost.”
-“What do you mean ‘my ghost’ I’m not dead!”
-“I know and this is very curious.”
-“What?? Are you here to kill me?” Said she, always pointing her gun at the ghost.
-“No, no I told you I can’t hurt you… oh I see what you mean, no, I’m not your ghost as in your dead spirit, but as your companion. We’re just called ghost.”
-“Like a pet ghost?”
-“….. if it can help you understand, kind of. It’s just that usually, Ghosts find their guardian dead and bring them back to life, you’re already alive. That’s unusual, that’s for sure.”
-“So I won’t have to die..?”
-“Well as a guardian, you’ll probably die many times…” Mara’s eyes opened wide out of fear. “… But it’ll only be a minor inconvenient.” Now she was just confused. “Hold on.”

The Ghost scanned her for a few seconds and disappeared. Mara put her gun away.

-“What the…” Mara said.
-“Don’t worry, I’m still with you, Guardian.” Reassured the Ghost. His voice seemed to come from Mara’s body itself.
-“Why are you calling me Guardian??”
-“Because that’s what you are now, a guardian, to protect the city and the world, to push back the Darkness.”

Mara shivered at the mention of the Darkness.

-“I remember the Darkness… It killed everyone. How can I push back such power? I’m just a simple girl, I can’t even…” she took a few seconds before continuing. “I can’t even keep my own sister safe.”
-“I can explain. When the traveler died,..”
-“The Traveler is dead??”
-“Yes, it died to save us all, to save humanity.”

The Traveler, this mysterious and enormous, city-sized sphere, was found on Mars, even though its origins are unknown, and brought to Earth. After it arrived, Earth’s Golden Age of space exploration began. Life span tripled, it was a time of wealth and miracles for the human race.

The Ghost continued :

“In its dying breath, it created the Ghosts, like me, to seek out for those who can wield its light as a weapon, to do what it no longer can. You seem to be one of them.”
-“Is the Traveler still here somewhere?”
-“Yes. We did build a city, the last city on Earth, right beneath it.”
-“And each Ghost was assigned to one Guardian?”
-“That’s correct. And we have to find them, which is not an easy task.”
-“How do you know that a person is assigned to you and not another Ghost? How can you be sure you’re MY Ghost?”
-“There’s a link between a Guardian and their Ghost. That’s what we seek, this link. We can’t be mistaken… or I thought so.”
-“What do you mean?”
-“Not so long ago, I was following the wave of what I thought was my Guardian, but couldn’t revive them. I was rather disturbed because I don’t think it ever happened before. Sure, the strength of the wave was not super intense but since one Guardian is assigned to one Ghost, what else could it be? But then I found you, and there’s no doubt. Hold on?” It scanned Mara again. “Huh. That’s odd, you both have the same DNA.”

Mara’s heart skipped a beat. She became numb in a instant.

-“What?” Asked the Ghost.
Mara was paralyzed.

-“Can I see her…?” She finally said.
-“Of course, follow me.”

The Ghost materialized in front of her and flew in the direction Mara came from. Her legs were moving mechanically as she followed the Ghost. There was so many emotions all mixed up inside of her. She was relieved but scared, happy but aghast, eager to know and not ready to know.
The Ghost finally stopped, scanning the ground.

-“Here she is.”

Mara got closer. On the ground was a skeleton, half hidden by a bush. It was heartbreaking. She took a look around and they were about 20 feet away from her car. She kneeled next to her sister and lovingly touched her hand.

-“Is there anything that we can do?” She said.
-“I’m afraid not. I cannot revive her.”
-“Can you try again?

The Ghost felt Mara’s despair and agreed to try once more. It scanned the skeleton to look for a fault somewhere that would make it succeed, couldn’t find any, but tried anyway. And failed.

-“I’m sorry.” It said.
Mara sighed.

-“Then let’s bury her.” She said.
-“We can’t do that!”
-“Why not?? Doesn’t she deserve that respect?”
-“Listen, if I perceived the Traveler’s light in her, it means she’s a Guardian and a Ghost is looking for her. If we bury her, they won’t find her and she’ll never return. Leaving her here is the best we can do.”

Mara stood up. She went to her car to take her backpack and walked towards the end of the line, where she heard the screams, centuries ago, her Ghost following silently behind her, scanning here and there and looking out for threats. It knew this wasn’t a safe area, but now wasn’t the time to put one more stress on Mara’s shoulders.

She walked like a zombie, in circles, among the cars for a while before heading towards the space station, as if she wanted to relive everything. She entered the space station. She could remember the soldier being told off as she walked up the stairs. The sun rays entered the windows on the right side of the bridge, up the stairs, giving the room an intense orange glow. The further she went, the more altered the station was. It wasn’t like in her memory. It was darker, sure, but certainly someone changed this place. The stairs on the other side of the bridge were in total darkness. Mara took her backpack to look for her flashlight when her ghost arrived next to her, with his core lighting bright.

-“I don’t know what you are looking for here” it whispered “but I have to warn you, it’s not safe. I have to get you to the city.”
-“How isn’t it safe here? Are there traps or something?”
-“Each second we stay here puts us in even more danger, so I’ll be quick. We are in Fallen territories. It’s full of those monsters here since the Collapse.”

-“What’s the Collapse?”

-“It’s when the Darkness arrived. We call this event the Collapse, and then came the dark ages.”

They heard a loud growl.

-“Oh no” whispered the Ghost. “They are right above us.”
-“So what, I have gun, I can defend myself, plus, you can certainly shoot lasers or something.”
-“No I can’t, I told you, I cannot hurt anything.”
-“You said you couldn’t hurt ME!” She sighed. “Then what can you do?”
-“I can scan things, make mechanical stuff work and… I can open doors?”
-“For fox’s sake, we’d think the Traveler would have created more useful drones.”
-“I can also revive you, you know.”
-“Aaahh see? You’re not that bad!” Said Mara, petting the Ghost, which tried to dodge the teasing sign of affection.

-“Come on now” he said. “I need to get you out of here!”
-“How far is the city?”
-“Far enough that we cannot get there by foot. Now we really should leave this place, let’s go back to your ship.”

Mara had no idea how threatening could be a wild Fallen. She knew how to use her gun, but she hasn’t had to fight anything so far. There was nothing else she could do about her sister anyway, and in any case, she could always come back later. They rushed outside, back to the car cemetery where she landed.

-“Hold on” said her ghost as soon as they got outside.
-“What?” Said Mara, a bit exasperated.
-“Shhh…”

The Ghost floated forward a bit, looking for what was going on.
Creatures started to get out of behind the many cars, slowly moving towards Mara and her Ghost. Weird cybernetic looking humanoid creatures, some with four arms, some with only two and what looked like limbs of two other arms. Their faces reminded her of one of a praying mantis. Knives and guns in their hands, they growled aggressively.

-“Fallen…” the Ghost said. “I hope you know how to use your gun.”

One of the four armed Fallen put his hands in the air, holding his gun and shouted a kind of roar, then they all started to attack Mara. A blue laser spark almost hit her shoulder. They were using guns with a technology she had never seen before. She managed to kill a few of the two armed creatures quite easily but more Fallen fell from a huge ship, flanking her. A ship she hadn’t seen even second earlier, it was like it came out of nowhere. She fired her gun again and again, reloading it a fast as possible and firing again. There were to many of them, Mara was starting to feel scared, very scared. Those monsters were all around her and she didn’t have the skills to fight back any longer. In a split second, she thought about all she had accomplished in her life, why she came here, and how much of a failure it had been. She couldn’t save her sister. Death was what she deserved. She had a last thought of her home and felt all the essence of the Reef flowing in her veins. In a rush of adrenaline she couldn’t explain, as if her soul took the lead and gathered all her energy in hopes to survive, a ball of purple void energy materialized into her hand. Coming to her senses, Mara freaked out and threw the void ball in front of her in the Fallen crowd to get rid of it. The void energy expanded into a large bubble, killing the creatures stuck in it within a few seconds.

-“What was that?” asked the Ghost, happily surprised.
-“I don’t know!!”

Mara was shaken.

-“Do it again!!” Her Ghost said.
-“I can’t! I don’t know how!”
-“Just try again!!”

Her Ghost seemed to have faith in her abilities, Mara thus trusted it and tried again. She didn’t know what she had done, but she concentrated, trying to gather some sort of energy, but couldn’t recreate that void ball. She wasn’t paying total attention to her enemies anymore and they took advantage of this to restrain her. Her Ghost disappeared like he had done when they met. She could feel his presence, she knew it hadn’t left her. She was stuck in Fallens’ hands.
One of them arrived in front of her. He was twice the size of the four armed ones, with a bigger armor that reminded a bit of royalty captain’s outfits. He growled something at Mara, that she obviously didn’t understand, and knocked her out.